He's Flying the Coop! Sending a Kid Off To College

Y'all I'm a mess right now! My sweet son, whom I usually refer to as "the big guy" has grown up. He is going off to college in a few short weeks. Granted he's not going THAT far, but still.  And I know that many of you moms out there have sent your precious children off to the military, missions and so forth so this may not seem like a big deal, but it is. My son is in the autistic spectrum. We have raised him to be a self sufficient, responsible and respectful young man. So far so good.  I still do worry about him living away from us on campus.  We can visit him any time as he's only a half hour away! (I know, I know!) We want him to live on his own so he can be fully ready to spread his wings when he finishes his undergrad. I don't know how a mother prepares for this. You just can't.  He was just a four year old boy yesterday playing with dinosaurs and memorizing every single detail of their existence and extinction.  Then he t...

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Book Page Bunny Silhouette Art and Banner

Book page bunny silhouette and cute Easter banner I'm back today to show you a super easy and cute way to decorate your mantle.  Or in my case, my faux mantle. It's just an Ikea shelf that we hung in our little dining area. I love to decorate it now.  For the bunny silhouette art You will need a piece of long wood or any size really A bunny silhouette  (you can find mine here and download it) clear tape old book pages black card stock or black vinyl Cricut Explore  First I took a piece of mdf that I had lying around.  I like the size. It's perfect for that space.  Then I found a bunny that was standing. I just searched on pinterest. You can either download it and print it out and just cut it by hand or I downloaded it and put it into my Cricut Design Space and cut it in vinyl.  Since I wanted my bunny to be 16inches tall x 8 inches wide I  had to cut it in 2 sections.  You can do that when you...

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Pretty Easter Door Hanger

As promised I am back today to show you another fun and easy Easter craft.  Y'all there's STILL time to crank one of these out! Easter Door Hanger  Here's what you'll need:  One egg shaped/oval shaped wooden plaque assorted craft paints and sharpies vinyl  burlap ribbon  hot glue (don't mind the little "eggs" next to it. They are part of another post .) First paint your egg in your favorite color.  Next, I started out by designing the chevron pattern I wanted on my Cricut Explore. You can easily draw it in by hand but I was testing some things out on my machine so I decided to do it that way.  So hand draw it or stencil on the chevron pattern.  Wait until dry and outline it with a contrasting color sharpie.  I then cut out my "M" initial with my Cricut and  applied it to the plaque.  I really like the colors. They go with the rest of the Easter them I have going :) I got...

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Simple Easter Crafts for Spring

Hi everyone. I'm busy crafting for my family's Easter celebration next weekend. Over the next few days I'll be posting some of my projects here for you . Spring Shadow Box These are simple, inexpensive projects that you can try at home.  First you'll need to gather the following materials: six small wooden oval shapes one 9 x 9 shadow box assorted paints and markers hot glue  vinyl  Cricut Explore cutting machine The Cricut Explore machine is optional. You can buy any vinyl saying at your local crafts store or online on Etsy. However, I highly recommend this awesome machine. No cartridges needed.  First I purchased the six oval shapes at Michael's.  They were found in the wood letter aisle and were only 29 cents each! Score! The cute shadow box was also on sale and it cost me around $8.  I have a large assortment of paints and sharpies but I picked up a few more paints.  They are only 69 cents and I picked ...

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Healthy Meal Planning for Working Moms

I recently returned to work after a long time handling some health issues.  If you're like me and have a difficult time eating healthy lunches at work, then this post is for you. Healthy Choice makes some delicious meals called Cafe Steamers. I love that you can heat up delicious meals at work and drizzle a scrumptious sauce on top. These meals are so easy to pack and go. The best part is that they're a healthy alternative to fast food.  I hate going out and picking up fatty burgers or other fast foods that are filled with calories and who knows what else.  I also discovered that if I want to eat outside on these pretty spring days, I can heat up my Healthy Choice Cafe Steamer then pour it into a thermal tumbler! Healthy eating on the go!  You can totally do this with kids when you pack their lunches.  Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers are so yummy! I love all their pasta dishes. I buy a variety of flavors to pack as lunches not ...

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Merry Christmas-Apartment Dining Reveal

Merry Christmas! I'm back to share with you my Christmas post. Remember how I told you we severely downsized to an apartment?  Well I've been unpacking and trying to find all my things that are packed up in boxes.  I finally found my fabric that I bought a couple of years ago to re do my chairs! So I set out to recover my chairs and paint my table in one weekend.  Pretty agressive of me don't you think? Well what I failed to remember not to forget was the  location of our STAPLE GUN. Facebook to the rescue. My daughter's MIL had an electric one I borrowed. Made things a lot easier to staple.  Now, re-covering chairs may seem like a simple task and well it is-until you actually start to do it.  There are millions of staples to remove.  First I took them off and used that fabric as templates for my new fabric. My mom helped me cut. Then I had to figure out how to staple it on so the staples wouldn't show on the chairs....

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Decorating a Small Apartment for Christmas

We are STILL unpacking! I had to take a break from all that and look for my Christmas decorations as I wanted to put up our tree on Thanksgiving Day.  Thank goodness last year I had the forethought of selling my ginormous, 12 foot, fat tree and replacing it with a skinny one.  It's 12 feet as well but my hubby told me not to put the bottom portion on so the star would be able to fit at the top. The tree is about 8 or 9 feet now.  It's perfect! I love that I kept my ornaments from the fat tree but I cannot find my red ribbon. I made do with a roll of red burlap I had stashed away (funny what you find when you're looking for SOMETHING else) I went ahead and just cinched it here and there to make it a little easier to wrap around the tree.  Then, since we don't have a fireplace in this apartment (sad face) I got a shelf from Ikea to put up in our entry way.  I have a little cabinet there that I decided to decorate around. The shel...

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